Now after the birth of Jesus, which took place at Bethlehem in Judaea in the reign of King Herod, excitement was produced in Jerusalem by the arrival of certain Magi from the east,

that so you may become true sons of your Father in Heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the wicked as well as the good, and sends rain upon those who do right and those who do wrong.

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad the road which leads to ruin, and many there are who enter by it;

and the heavy rain falls, the swollen torrents come, and the winds blow and beat against the house; yet it does not fall, for its foundation is on rock.

The heavy rain descends, the swollen torrents come, and the winds blow and burst upon the house, and it falls; and disastrous is the fall."

One of them ran forthwith, and filling a sponge with sour wine put it on the end of a cane and offered it Him to drink;

They quickly left the tomb and ran, still terrified but full of unspeakable joy, to carry the news to His disciples.

And when he saw Jesus in the distance, he ran and threw himself at His feet,

But the people saw them going, and many knew them; and coming by land they ran together there from all the neighbouring towns, and arrived before them.

Immediately the whole multitude on beholding Him were astonished and awe-struck, and yet they ran forward and greeted Him.

Then a man ran to fill a sponge with sour wine, and he put it on the end of a cane and placed it to His lips, saying at the same time, "Wait! let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down."

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being Governor of Judaea, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilene,

But I tell you in truth that there was many a widow in Israel in the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three years and six months and there came a severe famine over all the land;

But he who has heard and not practised is like a man who has built a house upon the soft soil without a foundation, against which the torrent bursts, and immediately it collapses, and terrible is the wreck and ruin of that house."

And, knowing their thoughts, He said to them, "Every kingdom in which civil war rages goes to ruin: family attacks family and is overthrown.

"So he rose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and pitied him, and ran and threw his arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly.

So he ran on in front and climbed up a mulberry tree to see Him; for He was about to pass that way.

Peter, however, rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw nothing but the linen cloths: so he went away to his own home, wondering at what had happened.

Now the wine ran short; whereupon the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."

But a stranger they will by no means follow, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."

And Pilate wrote a notice and had it fastened to the top of the cross. It ran thus: JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

So she ran, as fast as she could, to find Simon Peter and the other disciple--the one who was dear to Jesus--and to tell them, "They have taken the Master out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put Him."

but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached it before he did.

While he still clung to Peter and John, the people, awe-struck, ran up crowding round them in what was known as Solomon's Portico.

So Philip ran up and heard the eunuch reading the Prophet Isaiah. "Do you understand what you are reading?" he asked.

one of whom, named Agabus, being instructed by the Spirit, publicly predicted the speedy coming of a great famine throughout the world. (It came in the reign of Claudius.)

and recognizing Peter's voice, for very joy she did not open the door, but ran in and told them that Peter was standing there.

and yet by His beneficence He has not left His existence unattested--His beneficence, I mean, in sending you rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and joyfulness."

Accordingly we put out to sea from Troas, and ran a straight course to Samothrace. The next day we came to Neapolis,

But upon their opposing him with abusive language, he shook his clothes by way of protest, and said to them, "Your ruin will be upon your own heads. I am not responsible: in future I will go among the Gentiles."

Therefore I protest to you to-day that I am not responsible for the ruin of any one of you.

When, at last, we had torn ourselves away and had set sail, we ran in a straight course to Cos; the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.

It took several days of slow sailing for us to come with difficulty off Cnidus; from which point, as the wind did not allow us to get on in the direct course, we ran under the lee of Crete by Salmone.

And a light breeze from the south sprang up, so that they supposed they were now sure of their purpose. So weighing anchor they ran along the coast of Crete, hugging the shore.

Then we ran under the lee of a little island called Cauda, where we managed with great difficulty to secure the boat;

When daylight came, they tried in vain to recognise the coast. But an inlet with a sandy beach attracted their attention, and now their object was, if possible, to run the ship aground in this inlet.

The strange-speaking natives showed us remarkable kindness, for they lighted a fire and made us all welcome because of the pelting rain and the cold.

Ruin and misery mark their path;

For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ.

Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;

For the words are the language of promise and run thus, "About this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."

If your brother is pained by the food you are eating, your conduct is no longer controlled by love. Take care lest, by the food you eat, you lead to ruin a man for whom Christ died.

Every one of you already has all that heart can desire; already you have grown rich; without waiting for us, you have ascended your thrones! Yes indeed, would to God that you had ascended your thrones, that we also might reign with you!

Why, your knowledge becomes the ruin of the weak believer--your brother, for whom Christ died!

Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty.

That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

I went up in obedience to a revelation of God's will; and I explained to them the Good News which I proclaim among the Gentiles. To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

holding out to them a Message of Life. It will then be my glory on the day of Christ that I did not run my race in vain nor toil in vain.

But people who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many unwise and pernicious ways which sink mankind in destruction and ruin.

Bring all this to men's remembrances, solemnly charging them in the presence of God not to waste time in wrangling about mere words, a course which is altogether unprofitable and tends only to the ruin of the hearers.

I have gone through the glorious contest; I have run the race; I have guarded the faith.

For land which has drunk in the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sakes, indeed, it is tilled, has a share in God's blessing.

Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

Be patient therefore, brethren, until the Coming of the Lord. Notice how eagerly a farmer waits for a valuable crop! He is patient over it till it has received the early and the later rain.

Elijah was a man with a nature similar to ours, and he earnestly prayed that there might be no rain: and no rain fell on the land for three years and six months.

Again he prayed, and the sky gave rain and the land yielded its crops.

At this they are astonished--that you do not run into the same excess of profligacy as they do; and they speak abusively of you.

That is what he says in all his letters, when speaking in them of these things. In those letters there are some statements hard to understand, which ill-taught and unprincipled people pervert, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own ruin.

And hast formed them into a Kingdom to be priests to our God, And they reign over the earth."

They have power given to them to seal up the sky, so that no rain may fall so long as they continue to prophesy; and power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with various plagues whenever they choose to do so.